I enjoyed the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films (although I thought the last one lacked focus) but for some indistinct reason the reboot didn’t really appeal so we didn’t go to see it at the cinema.
I was interested in it enough to record it from Movie Central though and it’s been sitting on our PVR for a while. We finally got around to watching it last night and it turns out my ill defined impressions were correct. It wasn’t a bad film but halfway through I stopped caring about anything that was going on.
Thinking about it this morning, I came to the conclusion that the problem was it all felt too familiar. Apart from a different villain, it’s essentially the same story as the Tobey Maguire version. I get that it’s an origin story and so there’s a formula that needs to be followed but even the tone felt similar to the earlier films (or at least to my memory of the earlier films).
Contrast it to the Batman reboot. Again, it was a familiar story but it felt different – fresher and more modern. The Dark Knight trilogy works because it keeps to the spirit of Batman while still bringing new ideas to the table. The Amazing Spider-Man just feels like an unnecessary clone of the earlier film. It helps that Batman is 247% more bad-ass than Spider-Man but still, Batman Begins succeeded where The Amazing Spider-Man failed, at least for me. I see there’s a sequel coming as well, I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to watch that one either.
